Vaccines for Mesothelioma?

Immunotherapy vs. immunization

Vaccines for infectious diseases have all but eliminated some of the most feared scourges of the past such as smallpox, tetanus, and polio—and the future even holds some promise for a vaccination for AIDS or Alzheimer’s disease. So these questions arise.

Can researchers develop a vaccine for mesothelioma?

What most people think of when they get vaccinated is receiving a shot that will protect them from the agent that causes the disease. That is called immunization. Rather than killing the infectious agent, these vaccines stimulate the immune system so it can fight the disease and prevent it from sickening the vaccinated person.

Vaccines can prevent or lessen the effects of infection by many pathogens. But mesothelioma is not caused by a virus, bacteria, or other infectious agent. A vaccine cannot prevent exposure to asbestos, so most research does not concentrate on the idea of getting vaccinated for mesothelioma to ward off the disease.

Instead, the focus of mesothelioma vaccine research is developing treatment techniques that stimulate the patient’s immune system to fight the mesothelioma cancer cells. This is known as immunotherapy. The immunotherapy techniques used in mesothelioma are still experimental and are a long way from acceptance, but there is anecdotal evidence that some mesothelioma patients with the longest survival rates have used some method of strengthening their immune systems.

Promising recent research

A recent study in the Netherlands produced some encouraging findings for improving the treatment of mesothelioma through use of immunotherapy. Study author Joachim G. Aerts, a pulmonary physician at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, used autologous mesothelioma cells to stimulate the immune response and vaccinated mesothelioma patients shortly after they had undergone a course of chemotherapy treatment.

Dr. Aerts told Medscape Oncology that the treatment was based on the observation that mesothelioma tumors are immunogenic, provoking the immune system to remove circulating cancer cells. This works until late in the mesothelioma disease process, when the immune system no longer functions properly. Vaccination with these cells did stimulate immune responses toxic to the cancer in about half of the patients tested, stabilizing or slowing down the progression of their disease.

Cautious optimism for mesothelioma vaccination

These results are encouraging, but the study was small. Researchers are not sure that the shrinking of the mesothelioma tumors was caused by the vaccination and not by a delayed reaction to the chemotherapy. Getting definitive answers on the feasibility of a mesothelioma vaccination requires further study of a much larger group of patients and randomizing the trial so only some of the patients receive the treatment.